Waiting on U.S. Mandate, Some Nursing Homes Are Slow to Vaccinate Staff

At facilities in several states, many workers are still not immunized. “I just feel like a sitting duck,” one resident said.

When Jim Lewis was told earlier this month that his 90-year-old mother, who lives in a nursing home outside of Boise, Idaho, tested positive for Covid-19, he wondered if she had gotten the virus from an unvaccinated employee.

And he had reason to worry. A little more than half of the workers in the home, Creekside Transitional Care and Rehabilitation, were not vaccinated at the time, federal data show.

“It was obvious that the facility had staff members who were vaccine hesitant,” said Mr. Lewis, whose mother and immediate family are all immunized.